Zambarau Concord Mbili/Zambarau
The Zambarau are a species of purple sapient ecophytes created by a seedship on the planet Ahdm'pya. It is thought that the seedship that created the Zambarau of the Zambarau Concord Mbili was launched by a precursor species to the Zambarau with similar features. Environment The Zambarau came about on the ocean planet Ahdm'pya. Ahdm'pya is completely covered in a planet-wide ocean hundreds of kilometres deep, beneath a thick atmosphere primarily composed of oxygen and water vapour; the planet is very hot due to the high levels of water vapour in the atmosphere inducing a strong greenhouse effect. As there is no land to break up atmospheric currents, winds are very strong, and the planet has at least one permanent cyclone which plies over the ocean. This combination of environmental conditions results in a highly volatile world. The planetary ocean is slightly oxygenated due to constant stirring by the planetary storm systems, causing oxygen from the atmosphere to dissolve into the water. This, combined with the high temperature of the planet, makes the oceans highly corrosive, causing organic molecules that would typically be ideal in less corrosive environments to break down intolerably quickly. As would be expected, before the colonisation of Ahdm'pya by the seedship, the only native life present was primitive, short-lived prokaryotes, that had yet to develop into eukaryotes (though such an evolutionary step seemed unlikely anyway). Biochemistry The Zambarau have an extremely stable biochemistry which would typically be ineffective, as it would be too difficult to break down the organic molecules in order for the chemical reactions necessary for biological processes to take place; however, the volatile environment of Ahdm'pya makes the Zambarau biochemistry ideal. The basis of Zambarau genetic material is a string of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms; this is a highly stable basis, as silicon and oxygen atoms usually form silicon dioxide crystals (they cannot, in this case, because of the surrounding chemical bonds). Around this string of atoms are bonded carbon atoms, which prevent the strings from bonding together into useless crystals; the carbon atoms also form the basis of more typical carbon based molecular structures. For further stability, many of the hydrogen atoms within these structures have been replaced by larger fluorine atoms; the result is a biochemistry that can be best referred to as being based upon 'fluorosilicones'. Other organic molecules within the Zambarau are also based on fluorosilicones. Because of their hybrid carbon- and silicon-based biochemistry, the Zambarau produce both carbon dioxide and silicon dioxide during respiration. Zambarau sap is deliberately kept quite volatile to break down dissolved silicon dioxide and preventing it from crystallising, which would be disastrous for the poor Zambarau. Anatomy Zambarau, like most plants, can vary greatly in their shape and size, depending on environmental conditions, though they still have a characteristic anatomy which can easily be discerned. Zambarau float close to the surface of their ocean planet. Around the surface is the brain; a large mass of dense neural matter that extends a long way down below the surface, creating a pin shape. Extending hundreds of metres below the surface are the roots; vine-like structures with an extremely high surface area, designed to absorb the necessary minerals from the ocean. Extending radially out from the brain are the primary leaves; thick leaves that act as flotation devices, preventing the Zambarau from upturning. Most Zambarau also have a short, fern-like stem which extends above the surface of the water, from which secondary leaves grow to complement the light collection of the primary leaves (since the primary leaves are used for flotation, their light collection and photosynthesis rate is not optimal; the intervening secondary leaves allow for much more efficient light collection and photosynthesis. Importantly, the Zambarau are ecophytes; an individual Zambarau may be home to hundreds of prawn-like creatures which the Zambarau refer to as 'limbs'. The limbs live and reproduce from the Zambarau; even feeding from them via specialised feeding points. Zambarau can control their limbs directly using light signals, using them to manipulate the world around them; limbs also have the mental capacity to, if needed, go out on errands to perform simple tasks outside of the Zambarau communication radius. Zambarau are even able to exchange limbs between each other, so they are far from just simple parts of the body of a Zambarau, but a pervasive swarm of organisms that the Zambarau can manipulate to do their bidding. Zambarau are photosynthetic, but can also eat plants and animals; the roots can trap food like a web, which closes around the food before internally digesting it. Though Zambarau can survive on photosynthesis and ambient nutrients from the ocean alone, eating is highly beneficial to their health, and they will often send limbs to hunt or collect food for them. Reproduction Zambarau reproduce asexually by budding; this allows them to stay closer together in communities, so that they are able to co-operate more effectively. Useful genetic mutations are spread virally; the more conductive a mutation is to survival, the healthier the individual will be (or the less likely it is that the individual will die, for whatever reason), and therefore the more widespread that mutation will become. Even fully grown Zambarau are able to incorporate these virally spread mutations into their genome successfully, as the Zambarau cellular condition appears to remain in a similar state to the highly versatile cellular condition of a foetus. Senses Most sensory data that the Zambarau receive are from their limbs. This includes basic sight data (wavelengths 190nm to 2000nm), limited data about the chemical composition of the ocean and lots of touch and sound data; this allows Zambarau to build up a three dimensional map of their surroundings based on the collective data of their limbs; a significant portion of their mental capacity is devoted to this. Zambarau also have a number of senses of their own, mainly based in their roots; the roots are capable of detecting sound, temperature and chemical composition extremely accurately, while the brain of the Zambarau even houses a magnetic sense, which allows the Zambarau to detect the concentration of magnetic particles in the ocean, as well as define its position using an internal compass. Finally, the secondary leaves are sensitive to high frequency radiation. If there is a solar event (or any danger, for that matter) that could harm the more delicate parts of the Zambarau, the Zambarau will deliberately sink itself, the tough primary leaves closing around the secondary leaves like the petals of a flower, the roots bunching up beneath it; water is an excellent shield against radiation and Zambarau can stay like this, hundreds of metres below the surface, for many months or even more than a year by hibernating. Communication Zambarau bodies (particularly the roots) are covered in millions of photosensitive 'dots' capable of detecting light of a wide range of frequencies; however, they do not have the neural architecture to use these dots to 'see' as an animal would; primarily using the dots for communication with their limbs and with other Zambarau. This is because Zambarau have another layer of dots (limbs have these on their backs to a very limited degree) capable of producing light of a wide range of frequencies; as light travels at a much higher speed than sound, Zambarau can communicate huge amounts of information in a very short amount of time, to the point at which they can stream sensory data directly from their limbs and communicate abstract ideas to other Zambarau without the use of a language, as such. Psychology Being so different from most other forms of sapient life, the Zambarau have a very strange psychology with inexplicable motives that some might even consider insane. The Zambarau brain is much more distributed than most brains, split into microscopic nodules of brain cells; separate nodules each specialise in a particular brain function, and the arrangement of brain functions is distributed across the brain, rather than consigned to a single region of the brain. The structure of the Zambarau brain appears vine-like (in scans the nodules are arranged around vertical bunches of nerves, making the brain structure appear like a bunch of leafy vines), rather than tree-like or otherwise. Due to the fact that Zambarau can communicate huge amounts of highly accurate and detailed information between each other in a short period of time via light signals, they find communication with more conventional sapients highly simplistic, which can lead to Zambarau being condescending without realising. Zambarau also have less understanding of the concepts of individuality and isolation; to them, to be isolated is to lose part of oneself. Most Zambarau constantly communicate with each other and are highly sociable, sometimes annoyingly so. Zambarau are also have excellent spacial awareness, and are excellent muti-taskers - able to easily concentrate on many things at once; this they do nearly all the time, as they can't stand idleness. When they are concentrating on many things at once, one part of the brain of a Zambarau may be only partially aware, or not aware at all, of what the others are doing, and it can take a while for a realisation from one part of the brain to 'sink in' to the other parts and reach the forefront of the awareness of the Zambarau (these parts of the brain are usually denoted by the individual bunches of nerves that make up the brain structure). Zambarau sleep like many other sapients do, though Zambarau sleep is usually different from usual. While, when most sapients sleep, they have little external (sensory) awareness but high internal awareness (dreams); all Zambarau brain functions seem to drop to a lower level by equal amounts when they sleep. This way, the Zambarau are still aware of their surroundings, but at a lower level than usual; meanwhile, Zambarau have nothing like dreaming, instead having a low level form of contemplation or reflection of recent thoughts and experiences. By the standards of other sapients, Zambarau have disturbingly warped versions of concepts such as death, physical location, priority and urgency. Category:Zambarau Concord Mbili Category:Zambarau Category:Articles by User:Mr.Robbo Category:Sapient beings Category:Creatures